R160 (New York City Subway car) - RollOverTheFloor
The R160 is a class of 2,264 new technology (NTT) New York City Subway cars built by Alstom Transportation and Kawasaki for the B Division. The cars, which entered service between 2006 and 2010, replaced multiple fleets built in the 1960s and 1970s, including all R38, R40, and NYCT-operated R44 cars, as well as many R32 and R42 cars. Description Features History Timeline of contract and construction In August 2001, New York City Transit officially announced that it has put out a contract for a new model called the R160 in order to replace older B Division rolling stock that were first built in the mid-late 1960s era, particularly the R32, R38, R40, and R42 cars, as problems with these four models were at a peak since these fleets' failure rates were rising steadily. The initial contract called for 400 sixty-foot cars that would come in four-car sets to retire all 400 R42s that were exclusively assigned to the BMT Eastern Division's J''', '''M, and Z''' routes; in addition, the contract called for 820 sixty-foot cars that would come in five-car sets to be assigned to the IND Queens Boulevard Line's '''E and F''' express routes to retire the older R32 equipment on the former and displace the R46 on the latter in order to reduce dwelling times at stations, as the Queens Boulevard Line has the second highest ridership in the subway system; the displaced R46s would be reassigned to other lines that also use R32s as well as R38s in an attempt for the Transit Authority to further retire the latter two car fleet types altogether. The new cars would be expected to have similar features and design as the R143 equipment that was already first being constructed at the time. The only difference is that, the contract also called for the R160 to feature the aforementioned electronic FIND system, rather than strip maps found on the previous NTTs, so that it would be easier to rotate the new cars between their future assigned routes and yards, given the overall complexity of the B Division. On July 31, 2002, New York City Transit awarded Alstom a $900 million contract for 1,220 new B Division cars, with an option order of 920 more cars that would have also come in five-car sets. The plan for the option order of 920 more cars would further expand the B Division's overall fleet for service increases, including today's Second Avenue Subway extension of the '''Q train and, to a lesser extent, the 18th Avenue extension of the G '''train; some of these option order cars would be allocated towards the '''G '''and '''Q, as well as towards the N''' and '''W because the latter two routes are based out of the same yard (the Coney Island Complex) and share the same northern terminal. The option order, in particular, would displace the R68s and R68As on the G''' and '''Q to other lines, and retire the R40 equipment used exclusively on the N''' and '''W. Kawasaki and Alstom organized a joint venture called Alskaw Inc. for project management, engineering, and equipment purchasing to pursue the contract, and to allow for operational compatibility with the R143s, which were built by Kawasaki. The two companies built and delivered the rolling stock through the joint venture. Kawasaki not only manufactured most of the cars in the option order contract but was also the engineering leader for the whole project and provided the trucks for all cars. Alstom assembled 1,220 R160A cars at its manufacturing plant in Hornell, New York, while Kawasaki assembled 820 R160B cars at its plant in Yonkers, New York. Shells for the Alstom-built cars were built in their Lapa plant, in São Paulo, Brazil, and shells for the Kawasaki-built cars were assembled at their Lincoln, Nebraska, plant. Delivery Early on in the order, Alstom encountered significant start-up production problems since being awarded the 1,220 car contract. In July 2005, Alstom missed its contractual deadline to deliver the 10-car test train, which arrived five months late with Alstom requesting three additional months to deliver the test train. In addition, the Transit Authority rejected several car shells made earlier at their plant in Lapa, Brazil, near São Paulo, after discovering welding defects. The first 5-car set of R160As (8653-8657) was delivered on November 29, 2005, and the next remaining five cars (8658-8662) were delivered on December 6, 2005, to the New York City Transit Authority, forming a complete 10-car train for acceptance testing and evaluation. The R160As entered revenue service on the A''' on October 17, 2006 for in-service acceptance testing after several months of exhaustive non-revenue service tests. The first train of R160Bs (8713-8722) was delivered on July 22, 2005. The R160Bs entered revenue service on the '''N on August 17, 2006 for in-service acceptance testing after slightly over a year of successful non-revenue service tests. While Kawasaki had virtually no problems in delivering the R160Bs (820 out of the original 920-option order cars), Alstom was behind on its delivery schedule early on in the R160A order. Alstom was to deliver half of the 1,220-car contract by September 2007. However, by that month, Alstom had only delivered 80 cars. Under the mainline contract, Alstom agreed to pay damages of $800 a day for late deliveries of four-car trains, and $1,000 a day for five-car trains, though the Transit Authority had not yet fined Alstom for its late deliveries and was actually negotiating with Alstom to accelerate their delivery schedule. The remaining cars in the mainline contract were finally delivered 7 months late in early April 2008. - - - See also *New Technology Train - A list of all NTT trains on the New York City Subway. *R143 - a similar car also built by Kawasaki Railcar Corp. of Kobe, Japan